Friday, July 12, 2019

Apocalypse Prepping

The 2019 Apocalypse rules just arrived at the Atomic Warlord's Command Center, and I am pleased to say our first stumble-through will be this weekend. Orks versus Imperium and Eldar.

To make the game run smoother there is a bit of prep work to get done. First is Datasheets. Games Workshop was kind enough to provide all the datasheets for free, and formatted for easy printing. Well done GW.

Buuut I was thinking about being lazy and just buying the Data Card packs that I needed a few at a time. But but, the premade ones are not super huge (4"x6"), and well, I am getting older and now require "cheater" reading glasses for fine print. Don't laugh. It will happen to you too! So I experimented with printing them out, and found that at 125% they are a really nice, legible, size. Crank them out on heavy cardstock and done!

25% bigger makes a huge difference.

The movement tray are a new wrinkle this time out. Seems like a very good idea, that will help with the game flow. I bought one pack of the 25mm just to see what they would be like. They are very nice, if a little limited in use. For example both the Guard and Eldar Guardians have a squad of troops (25mm bases) plus a heavy weapons squad/platform (40/60mm base) and can't really use the five model trays to full effect.

That's when Mrs. Blackheart stepped in and suggested that her 3D printing robot could do the job! She is currently drafting up the multi-size tray, but she quickly whipped up some 10-figure 25mm trays and a five-person 32mm.

The 3D printed trays are nice! They print quickly and use very little material. The only minor gripe is that the figures are a bit close to each other on the 10-figure tray. This does not affect gameplay, but can make the tray seemed a bit crowded. With figures that have a lot of flair, like Lootas or Genestealers, it can get a bit unwieldy. This applies to the very nice GW made trays as well.

I am looking forward to the game, I will have my thoughts about the new Apocalypse next week.